Get to Know Barbara

Barbara Lynn Blackmon-Gussak is a fiber artist based in Mesa, Arizona, originally from Upstate New York. She draws inspiration from the natural world, blending her love of creation with a unique style of realism. In 2025, she plans to return to the East Coast to continue her artistic journey.

Barbara’s passion for fiber art began in her teens with macrame wall hangings and flowerpot holders. After a creative pause during college and her early career in nursing, her journey took her to Fairbanks, Alaska, where she was reintroduced to fiber art—this time through quilting. Over 21 years, she mastered a variety of quilting techniques before transitioning into art quilts, inspired by a commissioned piece that became her first collage quilt: a full-sized art quilt of an African elephant.

Encouraged by the appraiser of that quilt, Barbara entered her first competition in 2023. Her piece, Grace Under Pressure, was selected as a semi-finalist at the prestigious Road to California Quilt Competition. This recognition was confirmation that she was doing what she was meant to do, affirming her path as an artist.

As her passion for this style of art grew, she began to teach her methods in Arizona, falling in love sharing her techniques to quilters and non-quilters alike. Barbara is a certified instructor of Emily Taylor's Parchment Pressing Technique, an approach she enjoys teaching as it is very user-friendly for new students.

For her the process is true joy.